Safeguarding clean water in the nation’s capital

DC Water delivers about 100 million gallons per day (GPD) of drinking water to more than 600,000 residents, 700,000 people employed in the District of Columbia, and 17.8 million annual visitors.

Mott MacDonald's assessment and rehabilitation programs helped identify and repair leaks and broken valves in large mains, and assess the condition of tuberculated small mains.

Opportunity

Early in the 19th century, the federal government constructed a pipeline to carry drinking water from a natural spring to residents of Pennsylvania Avenue between 9th and 14th Streets. About fifty years later, in 1858, the Dalecarlia Reservoir was completed, and in 1859 the Washington Aqueduct began providing citywide water service.

Outbreaks of smallpox, cholera, and typhoid during the Civil War caused the city to expand the aqueduct and provide a filtration system. In 1937, the Blue Plains sewage treatment began treating the city’s wastewater.

Today, DC Water delivers about 100 million gallons per day (GPD) of drinking water to more than 600,000 residents, 700,000 people employed in the District of Columbia, and 17.8 million annual visitors. The water system includes about 1,320 miles (2,124 kilometers) of mains, 8 storage reservoirs and tanks, 43,600 valves, and 9,400 public fire hydrants.

As in many older East Coast cities, DC’s aging water and sewer infrastructure demands ongoing monitoring and maintenance as well as major renovation of physical resources and data systems.

Solution

Since 2001, Mott MacDonald has provided DC Water with its services as an engineering program management consultant under a series of multiyear contracts.

In support of DC Water’s ongoing Capital Improvement Program, we provide overall program management of the water distribution system, including project planning, engineering design, and strategic planning services, as well as review of the Master Plan and Operations.

In 2009, we prepared the Water Systems Facilities Plan Update, a master planning document used to select and prioritize projects under the Capital Improvement Program. DC Water’s CIP includes 332 individual design and construction activities in the Water Service Area with a total lifetime budget of more than $2.5 billion through 2030.

In 2013, we delivered the updated and expanded Water Systems Facility Plan. Using Primavera’s P6 software, Mott MacDonald provides project control tracking and management for DC Water.

In January 2014, DC Water announced it had selected us for a new five-year contract to support DC Water's ongoing Capital Improvement Program, and to perform work pertaining to the design, construction services, and operations of the water transmission and distribution system.

Hydraulic modeling

We imported an ESRI geodatabase into Bentley’s WaterGEMS software to create a hydraulic model that included all of the water system’s pipes in the eight pressure zones.

Following an incident when the supply of high-pressure water was reported as inadequate to combat a major fire, DC Water called on Mott MacDonald to prepare a report called “Evaluation of Small Diameter Water Mains — Fire Flow Analysis.” Using the hydraulic model, the report was completed within one month.

Large main renewal and replacements

Mott MacDonald is undertaking a systematic, prioritized approach to assessing all large-diameter water mains, leading to repair, rehabilitation, and/or replacement. This includes the following:

Identification, repair, and replacement of broken and malfunctioning valves

Small main renewal and replacements

Approximately 700 miles (1,126 kilometers) of DC’s distribution mains consist of unlined cast-iron pipe that is prone to be “tuberculated” with small mounds of corrosion products. This reduces hydraulic capacity and promotes the growth of microbes.

Since 2004, we have provided planning, design, design management, and other services in support of DC Water’s program to renew small water mains.

Pumping stations

We support improvements to modernize all three pumping stations, part of DC Water’s Capital Improvement Program:

80 MGD Anacostia Pumping Station

Rehabilitation of the Fort Reno Pumping Station

16th and Alaska pumping station upgrades

Storage facilities

We are managing a program to upgrade DC Water’s five underground storage reservoirs and three elevated water tanks. Based on inspections completed by Mott MacDonald and others, upgrades include the following:

Ventilation improvements

Installation of membrane covers

Sample pump improvements

Electrical improvements

Improvements to SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) and instrumentation

Rerouting of drain pipes

Upgrades to dechlorination equipment

Fire hydrant upgrades

We assisted DC Water with its program to upgrade fire hydrants, meeting DC Water’s accelerated schedule and preparing documents for multiple contracts. More than 4,900 fire hydrants were replaced or upgraded throughout the District.

Lead service replacement program

In 2001, the Washington Aqueduct converted to chloramination for water disinfection. Monochloramine is more stable than free chlorine, dissipating less rapidly and avoiding objectionable chlorine odors. However, chloramination can increase corrosion and therefore levels of lead in drinking water.

We provided assistance to DC Water in its effort to replace lead service lines, significantly exceeding the EPA’s requirement to replace 7% of lead service lines each year.

Design documents

In an accelerated manner, we provided design documents for these projects:

Replacement of 3,500 feet (1.1 kilometers) of small water mains in the Capitol Hill area

Replacement of 20,000 feet (6 kilometers) of water mains 12 inches (30 cm) or less in diameter

Replacement of an additional 7,000 feet (2.1 kilometers) of small-diameter water main

Outcome

For over a decade, we have successfully managed the Capital Improvement Program for the water service area and achieved project control targets. In one year, total overall spending in the water service area was 99.8% of the baseline projection.

Mott MacDonald helped DC Water exceed the EPA’s requirement to mitigate the potential effects of lead in the water system.

Mott MacDonald’s assessment and rehabilitation programs helped identify and repair leaks and broken valves in large mains, and assess the condition of tuberculated small mains.

Mott MacDonald’s design for the Fort Stanton Reservoir helped safeguard a supply of drinking water, preserve the character of a historic park, and prevented erosion in an aesthetically attractive and environmental sustainable way.

Mott MacDonald’s conversion of DC Water’s mapping inventory to an Esri geodatabase format will streamline monitoring efforts into the future.